AfterBurn Glow Render Effect

 

 

AfterBurn comes with a special glow routine (called AfterBurn Glow), which enables you to glow the AfterBurn effect based on the particle age.

 

AfterBurn Glow is also available as a Video Post plug-in.

 

You can use AfterBurn Glow to glow both AfterBurn and AfterBurn Combustion effects.

 

To use AfterBurn Glow, or any other Render Effect or Video Post filter that keys off an Object and/or Material ID, you must select Create Image Channels and Particle Age in the FusionWorks Renderer User Interface.

 

 

Glow Animation

These settings allow you to apply strength, size, and color (if you are using a user-defined color instead of the material color) to the glow and animate them over the particle age using Animation Flow Functions (AFFs).

 

 

 

Size - Lets you specify the size of the glow at birth and death of the AfterBurn effect. You can control the size interpolation using the AFF.

 

Strength - Lets you specify the strength of the glow at birth and death of the AfterBurn effect. You can control how the glow dies off over time using the AFF. This is very helpful for situations like explosions where the glow tends to taper off after the initial bang.

 

Color - This glow is based either on the color information from the AfterBurn effect or a user-specified color.

 

 

Color

This group of controls determines what color the AfterBurn Glow will use to create the glow effect.

 

 

Material - This option pulls the color of the AfterBurn Glow from the existing AfterBurn effect.

 

User - The User option applies the colors set within the Glow Animation group of controls above and ignores the existing AfterBurn effect coloration.

 

 

Source

This setting is where you define what parts of the AfterBurn output should be glowed using the AfterBurn Glow Render Effect.

 

 

Channel - Using this parameter, you can specify which Material ID channel should be affected by the AfterBurn Glow. This ID should be the same as the ID you have specified within the AfterBurn or AfterBurn Combustion effects.

 

 

AFF (Animation Flow Functions)

Animation Flow Functions are used for animation between the birth and death values of the glow, as well as color and strength values within the AfterBurn Glow effect.

 

 

 

The bottom left corner indicates the birth of the particle while the bottom right corner indicates the death. The space in between is the life of the particle.

 

 

Low Clip - This spinner, if raised above 0.0, will hold a minimum value until the low clip value is reached. In this way, the birth value is maintained until this point in the particle's life is reached.

 

High Clip - This parameter, if lowered below 1.0 will change the curve so it will reach the maximum value much faster and tends to compress the time it takes to reach the high clip.

 

Presets - There is also a flyout next to the two spinners that contains three preset AFF curves: A standard S-Curve, a Quick-Out and a Slow-Out.

S-Curve - This one keeps the start value low to begin, then gradually rises to the end value.

Quick-Out - This curve leaves the start value quickly and gradually eases into the end value.

Slow-Out - This curve eases out of the start value slowly and rapidly approaches the end value.